Nazi hunters

JERUSALEM - The director of Jerusalem-based Simon Wiesenthal Centre, Efraim Zuroff, says the Centre consistently opposes a renovation of the Kosovska Mitrovica house of WWII Nazi collaborationist Xhafer Deva.

In a statement to Tanjug, Zuroff said honours for Deva sent a horrible message to the Kosovo society and were a terrible insult to the memory of his numerous victims.

The director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Israel denounced Canadian troops for training neo-Nazi fighters in Ukraine, saying Ottawa has a responsibility to prevent such things from happening. "The Canadian government has not paid due attention," Zuroff told Citizen of Ottawa. However, the Canadian military has denied any obligation to screen participants in the training.

The UN Development Program, UNDP and the EU announced on Tuesday that they have halted the renovation of the former house of Kosovo Albanian politician Xhafer Deva, who was interior minister in a Nazi collaborationist regime during World War II.

The German ambassador to Pristina, Joern Rohde, said on Monday that he is "very concerned" about the renovation of the former house of "known Nazi collaborator" Xhafer Devi in the northern Kosovo town of Mitrovica.

"No history whitewashing! Don't distort the truth about the Holocaust or war crimes committed by the Nazis and local collaborators," Rohde wrote on Twitter.

"Very concerned about restauration plans for Xhafer Deva's house, a known Nazi collaborator/protagonist of infamous SS Skanderbeg Div. No history whitewashing! Don't distort the truth about the Holocaust or war crimes committed by the Nazis and local collaborators. Protect the facts," the German ambassador said on Twitter.

The Director of Israeli Simon Wiesenthal Center office in Jerusalem, Efraim Zuroff, referred to the initiative to renovate the house of Xhafer Deva, a loyal collaborator of the Nazis, in the north of Kosovo.
Zuroff said it is demeaning for the victims of the Nazis and their local collaborators.

One hundred and fifty-nine out of 250 MPs in the Serbian parliament voted on Monday for the establishment of a memorial centre at the Staro Sajmiste (Old Trade Fair) site to remember those killed at the Nazi concentration camp in occupied Belgrade during World War II.

Efraim Zuroff, director at the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, has dismissed the Croatian President's claim of trying to put a 'collective stigma' on the Croatian nation for the crimes of the Fascist Ustasa regime in World War II.

Nazi-hunter Efraim Zuroff said that the canonisation of controversial World War II Croatian archbishop Alojzije Stepinac would be “a religious tragedy” because he didn’t condemn fascist crimes.

BELGRADE - Alojzije Stepinac, the man who supported the Ustasha regime, can be neither a saint nor hero, said Efraim Zuroff, director of the Center "Simon Wiesenthal", following the unveiling of the memorial to the bishop of the Catholic Church in Osijek.